Michael Floyd out to prove he’s a changed man

INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL combine is a time for prospects to answer questions. They run the 40-yard dash to answer questions about speed, and they bench to answer questions about strength. Yet the hardest questions are the ones they can’t answer on the field or in the weight room.

Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd knows exactly what that’s like, as he just finished meeting with the media. The vast majority of the questions asked were about his alcoholism, as the star receiver was arrested three times for alcohol-related incidents while in college. The most recent one came last March, when he was arrested for driving under the influence and suspended from the team before eventually being reinstated by coach Brian Kelly.

“I’m comfortable in the position to answer anything. It’s just about answering the questions and moving forward,” Floyd said Friday.

So what has Floyd told teams that have asked?

“That you grow from it, that it’s behind you, that it’s a mistake that happened in the past and that I’m moving forward,” he said.

Kelly made Floyd take classes designed for students with alcohol problems, and Floyd feels they’ve paid off. When NFL teams see him, he wants them to see a first-round receiver, and not just another player with character issues.

“I think I’ve grown a lot,” Floyd said. “Coming to the NFL now, I think you do have to mature a great deal, because you can get behind in a lot of things. ‘¦ This is a professional [league], and you’ve got to act like a professional.”

On the field, Floyd is perhaps the third-best receiving prospect in the draft behind Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmonand Baylor’s Kendall Wright. His 37 touchdown receptions are the most in Notre Dame history, and has good size at 6-foot-2 and 220. He also has big hands and experience in a pro style offense from when Charlie Weis was there.

“Pro style offense is a lot different from [that of] coach Kelly being in the spread,” he said. “Being in this position now, going to the NFL, I think coach Weis is more into the NFL schemes and stuff like that. It’s good that I learned both of them and I have a little bit of experience in both.”